tUnE-yArDs’ Merrill Garbus assembles pop music like a mad scientist exiled from the laboratory and locked in a toy store. On third album Nikki Nack, Garbus (somehow) pushes further into the anti- pop world that she mastered with her 2011 breakthrough W H O K I L L, returning with (somehow) even better results. She applies her trademark playground chant vocals, clickety- clacking junkyard percussion and looped, off-kilter electronic effects to her catchiest, weirdest and boldest songs yet. But the boundary-smashing sonics match Garbus’ lyrics, as she taunts traditional masculinity (“Hey little manchild, look at your pants. An accident happens each time we dance,” on “Manchild”) and American culture (“I come from the land of slaves. Let’s go Redskins! Let’s go Braves!” on “Real Thing”) inside these neon, juicy bursts.